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Heroes Of Newerth: It Could Be a Very Good Game
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In our latest review here at MMORPG.com, writer Phil Bickle takes a look at Heroes of Newerth, a MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game along the lines of Warcraft 3. See how HoN stacks up against other MOBAs storming the market these days in Phil's review. Tried HoN? Let us know what you think in the comments.
MOBAs, or Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas, are the new hot trend in the MMO market. This becomes very apartment when a certain fabulous website dedicated to MMO's would post three reviews of very similar games in a sub genre within a few weeks of each other. Based off the “Defence of the Ancients” fan made game type from Warcraft 3, MOBA's such as Heroes of Newerth involve teams of players attacking each other’s base while waves of NPC units run to their deaths. You choose a character, level them through combat by being near skirmishes, buy armour and items, place skill points, and once the battle ends you do it all over again from the start. With the market quickly becoming over saturated, does Heroes of Newerth have what it takes to stand out?
Read more of Phil Bickle's Heroes of Newerth: It Could Be a Very Good Game.
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Comments
i agree you up to a point.. but...
really ?! when this became a bad thing in moba games ?
Battlegrounds and instanced PvP is a trend - a trend that continues to upset players again and again.
This is the reason an MMO site should not be reviewing a genre that is actually thriving. Saying too many heroes is a negative is pretty retarded....I get that in MMOs too many classes can be a hindrance because of class balance, but in the MOBA genre the devs actually know what they are doing, especially in HoN.
As for the score itself, I was pretty baffled because aside from Dominion in LoL, I see no point to play any other MOBA title but HoN. Quick updates, great server support, tons of characters to play, best graphics, and competitive stats. I guess if you don't like having people see how bad you suck then you wouldn't like stat keeping but to each his own...
Killed your review from that on, mmorpg shouldn't review moba games if they don't understand anything about them.
This game is horrid compared to LoL. HoN is a game for 1 type of person, the hardcore elite. LoL is waaayyyyyy more approachable for someone who just wants to have fun. And I am saying that Pre-Dominion. Now that Dominion is out it's even MORE approachable for casual players. LoL has better models, terrain, balance, and scaling. Granted, LoL's models are more cartoony, but they still look better. Oh did I mention LoL has better lore and backstories? Yeah, there is a reason LoL is flourashing right now and HoN isn't.
Don't bring that in here, man. Try to actually come up with a valid argument?
"This becomes very apartment when a certain fabulous website dedicated to MMO's would post three reviews of very similar games in a sub genre within a few weeks of each other."
C'mon guys, proof-read your work before you post it. It's hard to to take a review seriously when there's glaring mistakes like this that could have been easily avoided with a quick review.
Tryp
"MOBAs, or Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas, are the new hot trend in the MMO market."
NO.
the review oh wel...... ><
Sir, u have to play HoN for 1.5+ years to really know how good the game is... im serious...
(hon veteran since alpha alpha beta alpha)
cpcraft
I played HoN from the very beginning... Hell, I even used to give LoL players crap for being noobs...
I then gave LoL a chance and I came to realize it is a much better game. HoN has been a close DOTA clone since day one. LoL really tried to take from DOTA the best elements but create a NEW game. They didn't copy all the exact same items, heros, and abilities with a few minor new additions. Yes, all games have direct damage and damage over time abilities... So if you use that logic every RPG game is a clone of every other RPG game.
Anyway, LoL offers a much more enjoyable experience for all players. I've come to realize (as stated by other members here) that HoN is only for the super elitist e-peen groups. People who want to share their KDR stats with everyone, people who think that having an A.D.D. condition giving them the need to last hit every target on the map for hours upon hours of play time is a good thing.
PvE farming (and last hitting) is not an enjoyable aspect of MOBA's and that's exactly why LoL removed it completely. They wanted to focus on hero usage, skill usage, and team gameplay.
The fanboy arguments are just as invalid here as they are everywhere else. Many of us have played both games and found one or the to be more enjoyable or flat out better. To reference a similar subject... You can hate on WoW and flame WoW fanboys all you want, but the fact still remails, WoW is/was the biggest for a reason. LoL is the biggest for a reason... More people enjoy it = more people play it = it's generally considered better.
Dude, go play League of Legends
? HoN is harder, more heros, the merrier! You have know what does every single champ in order to play competitive matches. Therefore, fail review.
asdasdasd
Yah....agreed. LoL is where it's at, for both casual and competitive/pro players. LoL is also much easier to pick up but hard to master.
I bought this game a long time ago and it is better then any other moba game I have played LoL is just bad. There can never be to many heroes it is boring to play the same person over and over again. This review is bad.
I have to reiterate what is said above. Posts and comments can be forgiven for typos, but reviews should be proof read.
I'm going to have to agree as well. When I post stuff here, I usually read it after I post it. So I end up editing typos (instead of proof reading before. It's a bad habit I guess), but when I post on my blog, I proof read it before posting at least once, usually twice, depending on the length.
I'd let it slide, but this isn't the first time I've seen typos in a feature. I don't think it's this specific person posting features, but it's just most of the feature posters on the site as a whole that I've noticed recently.
Bad review. really bad!
Too many heroes?!
And yeah, LoL might be number 1 but there are still many people who like and prefer HoN.
As the guys above said HoN is for the super hardcore elitist players and DoTA was that kind of game so naturally me and my friends and many people from my circle relate to that so we choose HoN. It simply is an improvement of DoTA, you could even say for a year and a half (before we found out there is actually gonna be a DoTA 2) it WAS the DoTA 2 just because it's the same thing we all loved just made BETTER. Better graphics better sound better gameplay etc. LoL is a whole different game trying to approach casual players who like to jump in for an hour and then play again the next day or even more rarely. And that's it. I don't really care which is the best because I play them both and I enjoy both. LoL with some of my friends and HoN with other friends.
I play both HoN and LoL, yet the authors lack of knowledge leads me to the conclusion he is a big LoL fan, with baised opinions. Each game has their ups and downs.
Lets get into ripping this thing apart, shall we?
Im going to make my points short and simple, as there are alot of them.
"MOBAs, or Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas, are the new hot trend in the MMO market."
LoL, DotA, HoN, BLC... none of these are MMO's. They are MOBAs, simple as that. S2 personally describes their game as a Action-RTS... but whatever.
"There is another slower way to get coins which simply involves playing. As you play games you will accumulate coins, which does make the game truly free to play, but don't count on unlocking everything any time soon this way."~~~~~ Same with League of Legends.
"In the create a game menu you can also set up a practice match, which will be covered more later in the review. If you want a quick summary though: I find the game very lacklustre, if not completely pointless in its current form."
This shows a lack of journalism, the author is unable to string a coherent article together, seemingly putting in a "tl;dr" just out of nowhere, with no lead into or general justification. (Yes, he goes into aspects of the game further down, but it is still out of place.)
"There is also a casual mode in the game, but not much is changed in it. You start with your hero at level three and gain experience and money faster, but besides that it plays the same as the normal game type. It is really only there to save people five to fifteen minutes, but seeing as no one ever plays it, you can take that long wait for a match to start at times."
Honestly, did you even play casual mode? It isnt dominion. Queue times aren't that much shorter, you DONT start a level three, and is less hardcore and elitiest. No gold loss on death, no uphill miss chance, more gold for hero kills, faster xp gain... Seriously, how can you even write a paragraph without playing the mode. Because thats what you clearly did, OR your retarded and somehow thought you started at level 3.
"HoN just doesn't do anything that hasn't been seen before, and some missing features really hold it back from shining in a quickly crowding genre."
Missing features... HoN has added:
Vector Targetting
Pause and Remake function, (still remember at dreamhack when the professional players laptop crashed, causing him to lose his lane)
In-Depth stats (LoL has this, but not to the same depth)
New innovative heroes (LoL designers are starting to pick up on this, orginall their new heroes were the same stuff, but orianna and talon are completly different to all others)
BALANCING. Thankfully, unlike LoL's comunity theres no FOTM, and at the moment i think is in a balanced state. There are heroes who need buffs and nerfs, but there are no blindingly OP heroes. Poor Riot designers, every 2 weeks there a new hero the masses cry about: See GP, Orianna, Morgana, Akila.
REPLAY/SPECTATOR. Nuff said.
Map Editor: However, s2 still havent released multiplayer mad editor, so maps can be made, but not played. Some maps you may know from WC3 have been made, such as Pudge Wars, Element TD, Efos. BUT WE CANT PLAY THEM.
Social, 4/10, checks LoLs rating, 6.5/10.
Yet that article talks about a lack of guild system, and buggy chat, neither of which are in HoN...
MOBAs arent social games, yet HoN has more of the in-game social area, yet it scores lower...
HoN does use alot of RAM, which causes alot of people to crash, but atleast they're not using the prehistoric Adobe Air, which has many many problems.
"...the lack of maps..."
HoN: Forests of Calvadar, Darkwood Vale, Grimms Crossing, Watchtower.
LoL: Crystal Scar, Sumonners Rift, Twisted Treeline.
DotA: Just the 1 standard map.
ITT: Author things 4 maps is a lack compared to 3 and 1.
Very biased review.
Should be redone by someone who does not love LoL.
BTW what is this?
Pro: Many heroes
Contra: Many heroes?
Am I missing something?
This review seems incredibly biased, and in numerous cases factually incorrect and in some major ways too. 'Monovax' summed up a lot of it so just read his post i suppose. I am also baffled how lots of heros is both a pro and a con, and yet theres apparently not enough maps (of which there are the same amount of dota & LoL combined). I wonder what the magic perfect number for both maps/heros is..
I'm actually fairly disgusted by this review. I won't even touch on the too many heroes is a negative.. enough people have already. I've played both LoL and HoN for quite some time. I still laugh at the fact that LoL doesn't have a functional spectator mode or the ability to review demos within the game. HoN has been doing this pretty much since launch, and while it was a bit rough in the beginning, everything was functional when I was playing. In fact the features were extremely impressive. It is true that HoN may not be for the newest of newbies if they aren't willing to take some time to learn the game. A lot of hardcore players from Dota went straight to this game.
Which now touches on your review of innovation. I don't think you understood the fact that this is what Dota players were asking for. A more polished stand-alone version of DOTA that had all of its features and more at the touch of a button instead of typing in commands. A functional rating system, various game types, on-demand demos, and functional spectator mode. It was supposed to be like Dota. Now I haven't played the F2P version. I don't personally think I would like it, as when I played my 'legacy' account, there wasn't anything I didn't have access too. I also thought that was amazing compared to LoL. I promise I have spent wayyy more money on LoL than I ever did in HoN.
As far as your 'nothing else out side of the hero is all that interesting' statement. I found the hilarious sound packs, and other addons and modifications to be extremely entertaining. Not to mention the addons people were making for the game. Very useful, and very fun.
The only thing that really sucked to me about this game was the community. Pretty much everyone was an a-hole from the 1400 to the 1700+ brackets of play. It actually surprised me how many people abused voice comm (yet another feature which is freaking amazing that LoL does not have). So many people would rage and cuss other players out in the 1400 bracket who were new and trying to learn this game. This was fairly disgusting to witness, and would pretty much kill most new player experiences.
LoL is fun, and easy going. While it too is competitive.. I always found the challenge in HoN to be much greater. Please have someone else who has actually played the game do a decent review.
Pros
Large number of heroes
Cons
Too many heroes to choose from
wait, what?
"There is also a casual mode in the game, but not much is changed in it. You start with your hero at level three and gain experience and money faster, but besides that it plays the same as the normal game type. It is really only there to save people five to fifteen minutes, but seeing as no one ever plays it, you can take that long wait for a match to start at times."
are you sure? last time i played it (about an hour ago) you started at level one, and im also pretty sure people do play it since ive been playing only cm for last 5months and never had problems finding a game.
i wont bother reading any further since its obvious that the whole article is full of garbage.
What is it that makes people defend a 'game'? :P
While I don't agree with some of the points, some of the existing playerbase left due to how the F2P conversion was handled.
It was a $60 retail game initially but now, those people who paid those $60 have to wait a month before getting access to the new champion that comes out. That is unless they pay more.
I can't recall any game that did that and it really turned off a lot of people.
If you are on the fence, give it a shot. It is F2P so nothing to lose.
For first time MOBA players, I'd recommend League of Legends; mainly because LoL has more beginners (x10 the playerbase).
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
It was $30 not $60, and the players who paid still get that hero for free just not straight away.
$30 not 60.. and there were many times where they would sell accounts for $10. The reason people are 'defending' this is because this article is rubbish, and most of it is inaccurate. Such as your $60 statement. I'd be surprised if you've even played the game at all.